this sunday, turning against trump. the president's long-time personal attorney, michael cohen, is apparentlyo prepared say the president knew in advance about the infamous trump tower meeting with russians. >> itppears the president's former attorney and confidant is ready to talk. >> and cohenry leases a tape discussing buying the story of a former playmate who says she had an w affaih mr. trump. >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay something. >> and we'll pay with cash. >> no, no, no, no, no. >> rudy giuliani attacks cohen. >> the man is a liar, a proven liar. >> not long after praising him. >> the man is an honest, honorable lawyer. >> jbit how a threat does cohen pose to president trump? my guests this morning, former trump polical advisor sam nunberg and republican senator

rob portman of ohio. plus guns and poses.ma ria butina loves guns,cu ivated conservatives and is now in jail, arrested as a russian agent. does she hold the key to an nra/russia connection? and base politics. today marks 100 days until election day. it's demo atic enthusiasm versus trump loyalty. joining me for insight and bcalysis are news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell, eddie glaude jr. of princeton university, peggy onan and matthew continetti. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. perhaps nothing betterlu rates how president trump wants his supporters to seed t woan this moment from his speech to the vfw on wednesday. >> wt you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's

happening. >> that's right. what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. okay. despite his orwellian phrasing, one bit of news president trump does want people to know is happening is that the economy grew at a rate of 4.1% in the second quarter. it's the highest since 2014r underident obama. but beyond that, the news was not good for the president this week. there were increasing signs of a democratic blue wave in the tldterm elections. now ex 100 days away. we learned federal prosecutors are seeking to ierview allen weisselberg, mr. trump's chief financial officer and someone who knows as much as anyone about how the trump and mr. trump personally has done business and with whom. but therwere two other stories that got the most attention this week and they both involve the prident's now form long-time attorney, friend and fixer, michael cohen. not only did cohen release a tape of him discussing hush money payments to a playboy

model, he appears to be prepared to tell the special counsel that mr. trump knew abo the infamous trump tower meeting with russians in advance. if michael cohen tells that version ofnd events if he could prove it, it could turn out to be the game changer, even for members of m trump's own party. >> is michael cohen lying? >> for more than a year, president trump and his surrogates have denied that he knew of the june 2016 meeting with kremlin-connected agents a trump toat included his son, his son-in-law, and his then campaign chairman,isho now behind bars. >> no, i didn't know anything about the meeting. >> do you tellour father anything about this? >> no. it was such ae nothing, ths nothing to tell. >> the president said he became aware ofit very recently, right before this came out, and that's when hwas notified. >> and just this week, the president repeated, i did nme know of thing with my son. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an

unrelated jam. that someone? the psident's former personal lawyer and fixco, michael hen, who is floating himself as a possible witness, making it clear he is willing to tell special counsel robert mueller that mr. trump knew about and approved of the meeting tbeforehand. s is about truth versus lying, and ultimately donald trump is going to be done in by the truth. >> cohen is under investigation for bank fraud and possible campaign finance violations by federal prosecutors in newo ork city, whare examining his role in mr. trump's campaign as well. on tuesday, he released this tape through his lawyer, which appears toreference a money payment two months before the election to keep a former playboy modeliet about an alleged affair with mr. trump. >> we'll have to pay something. >> and we'll pay with cash. >> no, no, no, no, no. i've got -- no, no, no. >> just months ago mr. trump's y lawyer, iuliani, praised cohen. >> the man is an honest, honorable lawyer. >> but now --

>> he's been lo all week. he's been lying for hears. 's lied all his life. >> mr. trump is dperately trying to keep the russia issue from consuming his presidency. just 26% of voters approve of his handlingns of the relatp between the united states and russia. secretary of state mike pompeo eks grilled this w even by skeptical republicans after mr. trump's hotw private meeting and press conference with russian presiden>>putin. it's the president's blic atements that create concern amongst senators on both sides of the aisle. >> som sof thesetements actually achieve important policy outcomes for the united states of america. t some ofhem do. >> yes. >> and some of them are very damaging. >> and now t mr.rump is ducking questions from the pre more frequently, refusing to answer questions ten tis since the release of the michael cohen recording on tuesday night. >> mr. president, will you go to - >> let's get more insight into this relationship between the president and michael cohen.

i'm joinedw by sam nunberg, he was a political advisor to president trump before and then again during the 2016 campaign. welcome to "meet the press." >> it's an honor. >> so let's start with this. just a simple question, right, which is you've seen these two interact quite a bit, president ndump. help usstand the relationship between president trump and michael cohen. >> michael was one of the closest people i've seen with the president, highly devoted to him, a senseof loyalty that i thought, at least, until this week when i arned that he was taping him in person, a sense oa y that was, yes, he would take a bullet for him. he would do anything for him. i >> and your sense that michael cohen basically just handles things? is that -- when you hear the term "fixer" if the president has a problem he handl them? is that how he was known around trump tower? >> yes. this was in michael's purvie issues like this were. these are michael's responsibilitoes. >> i wan play an excerpt of the tape that michael cohen's legaheteam released. it is.

>> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. >> yeah. >> you know, so that i'm going to do that right away. i've actually come up and've spoken to allen weisselberg about how to set thehole thing up with -- >> so what are we gonna do? >> --ng fun >> that exchange, i know you weren't there for it. i'm not going to sit there and assume you were there for it. familiar, though, that style of exchange, back and forth between the present and michael cohen? >> once again, the idea michael was taping him in that office, when i heard that i felt like i was in the 26th floor of trump tower. remember, they never consummated this transaction so there's no idea there is an fcc violation.d yes, these s like the conversations you would hear in private. >> you said michael cohen was ry loyal and devoted. >> right. >> -- to mr. trump. did you ever see mr. trump be

loyal to him? >> ultim i felt he hasn't. i sympathize with michael. i understand the way michael feels. i have felt like that. with that said, chuck, with somebody like me who has defended michae publicly, when he takes lanny davis out of the clinypt and decides to start talking about watergate releasing these tapes, it's a bridge too far. >> are you saying y no longer count yourself as a friend of michael cohen? you did juf a couple days ago? >> no, he is a friend of mine. personally. once again, i feel bad for what his family is going through. but vis-a-vis his professional relationship with the president, it's highly unethical,f not -- if not getting disbarred for what he did. >> who's telling th? tr >> in terms of? >> who's telling the truth here? whose word should we take here, michael cohentimating what the president knew about these various payments or the president's word that he knew very little about it all? >> but there was no payment. but let's say we hear this conversation, but ultimatel you're asking me who do i

believe, the president or michael cohen with what michael cohen may say, for instance, oh what michael says now that the president knew about the russia meeting in advance, i would believe don jr. and the president in light of learning chat l was taping conversations, the way michael was conducting himself behind the scenes and in front of all of us. >> so you're saying -- you ought up this infamous trump tower meeting. wouldn't it be i unusualf donald trump jr. never told his father about it at all? >> look, under normal circumstances, if youave -- general i would think the president was told about it,ly especiecause this was a relationship, everybody can understand this was done through the ogilarov family, they had hosted the president perfectly legally in moscow for miss universe and talked about a trump tower moscow formany years. you understand trump tower, you worked through it. but the e-mail was sent directly to don junior from go nstone. it was sent to then mr. trump's executive assistant,

rona graff. so if you had t ask me specifically, and in light of learning that, one, michael was tapingresident, two, he doesn't have a tape of this, i would believe the president. >> you say yt're shocked t michael cohen was taping. michael cohen had this reputation among every single trump person i've ever dealt with, oh, yeah, michael cohen, he tapes everybody. >> correct. i thought he was taping all phone conversations. you know, for instance, if he had an iphone and it just taped alnvsations, he taped everything, you know, plays them back to the president, that would be something. but to tape people when you're sitting in the office with them? that was highly i never thought that. i never thought that if i was sitting across from him in his office i was being taped. >> why do you think the president -- some of this decision potentially byco micha n may have to do with one of two thinno. number onene seems to be wanting to pay his legal bills and that is bothering

>> why do you think the president didn't want to offer him a pardon? >> t donnk the president has obstructed this investigation? he understands now that he can not fire robert mueller, he cannot fire jeff sessions, he cannot fire rod rosenstein because that would go down the watergate model and that's what they're going down to ultimately get his impeachment. >> michael cohen ever tell you wh knew about this trump tower meeting? >> remember, i was fired in

2015. i had not been in trump tower. i was ed earlier -- >> right, i understand. then you were ought back and forth. you've had a weird relationship in trump world. >> i never discussed this with michael or anyone, by the way, about the meeting after it was . report what i did say, what i did say was when i saw that statement that was gen initially to "the new york times," i was like, oh, no, just please put itt.ll i was happy to see when don put the entire e-mail chain out. >> you had a feeling the present had isled? >> i had a feeling they weren't being clear and were going to make a mountain out of a molehi molehill. >> has the president ever lied to youo >> ever lied me? directly about an issue, no. has he ever lied to me about whether or not where i stood within the trump tiorgani, no. but there were -- obviously there were issues that i wouldn't ask him, so there was no reason for me, let's say, to explain this,on there's no re i would go in and ask him what about this accusation or that. it was none of business and i didn't know to know. >> i understand. but as a character witness, at

the end of the day, and i know what you said about michael cohen because you seem think the fact that he would secretly tape someone, that goes to h character. would you be comfortable to say president trump tells the truth isn't. >> vis-a-vis this investigation and ultimate collusion? >> be that specific,yes. >> yes, i would. >> tells the truth overall you're n comfortable sayin >> when i worked for him -- when iorked with him, he works people off everyone. that was ais motivati management style and, frankly, he enjoyed it, chuck. with that said, he never, ever lied about anything when it camn to, for in, business. and, for instance, when they call in allen weisselberg now and if they'rem calling in because of the tape that lanny davis played, then their relationship withichael is certainly done. i would tell you very quickly everything was done on the up and up. the president would always say everything has got to be i don't want a fine, i don't want anything going on here.

>> you just brought up allen weisselberg, the cfo. is he the guy who knows everything? >> he knows s everygle financial transaction, he's he ponsible for creating business system they had there. and i think in fact ultimately, and i've this to everyone, i've said this to you if you ever asked me. timately he'll be a character witness for trump org and it will come out positive becau they have not -- trust me, donald trump knew he was under the he had -- you know, he had a contract with nbc. everything that was done was on the up and up. at's what i believe, atleast. >> all right, sam nunberg, i appreciate your coming in and sharing your views and helping me out. thank you very much. now, let me turn to the elected side of things.jo ing me now is republican senator rob portman of ohio who sits on the foreign relations committee and was one of the senators who grilled secretary of state mike pompeo this week on the trump/putin relationship. senator portman, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> chuck, good to be on with you again. >> let me start with the michael cohen situation, becau he is

now contradicting something that donald trump jr. said under oath to congress. whether it was under oath or not, lying to congress is a crime. donald trump jr.old the judiciary committee that he did not tell his faboer anything of the trump tower meeting before or after. michael cohen is apparently contracting him. should michael cohen be called before the judiciary committee and clear this up, soonerrather than later? >> i think the mueller investigation is probably the place this suld be cleared up. but, you know, that's up to the judiciary committee. >> if this is something that -- let me ask you this. you as a republican wosenator, d you want to see the judiciary committee sort of clean this up since they haveow gone this road, or you would say punt? you would tell senator grassley your advice would be leaveit alone? >> well, i think it's goi to a he said/he said issue so i think it's probably better that this gs through t regular process, which is ongoing,

chuck. i think the muelr vestigation ought to be brought to an end also. i mean we heed te the facts lead to the right conclusion and so ith support investigation, i have from the start, but we do need to wrap it up and, you know, i'm not an expert on michael cohen, never met the guy. i have been on the judiciary committee, i haven't been involved directly but it's important to get to the bottom of it but do it expeditiously. we've got a lot of other issues. >> let me move to the subjec you were grilling secretary pompeo on, on the issue o russia. it seemed to be that he wasn't -- his comments didn't satisfy many senators, and it was pretty contentioucontentiou particularly on the issue of policy. let me play a mash-up. >> policies are statements and statements are policies. >> no, that's not true i make lots of statements, they're not u.s. policy. >> i want you to think about the

suggestion that what the president says is not the policy of the united states. >> i misspoke. it is thecase. the president calls the ball. his statements are in fact policy. >> are you as confused now as you were before the hearing out who's in charge policy with russia, the president, thei adration, are they contradicting him? o statements serve as policy? what was yourterpretation of what you heard? >> well, first, i thought pompe d a terrific job. i was there for practically the entire hearing and it lasted several hours. what i liked about it is that he laid out very clearly and consistently what issues are with russia, the fact that we ve continue to policies in place that are very tough, the er, frankly, than previous administration, toughest sanctions since the cold war. we're arming the ukrainian which is something as you know i pushed the obama administration and the trump administrati on. we're finally doing it so they can defend themselves. we just gave them another $200 million. we'reending more troops to

europe. we're doing exercises in eastern europe, not aking theemlin happy. and we're pushing back in other ways. we talked about the global engagementcenter, which pushes back on disinformation and propaganda coming from russia,h whthink is long overdue and i commend secretary pompeo because he put that in place and is using it aggressively. so chuck, it's interesting, there are concerns, as i expressed after helski, of an inconsistent public posture as to russia, but in terms o policy, i think the administration is doing things a that are appro and very tough. i think that came out clearly at the hearing as well. >> i want to g back to the helsinki summit, because now have vladimir putin saying he'd come to washington, he's offered another invite, he talked about the -- that they seemed to have a lot of constructive conversations. moscow essentially looks like they were pretty happy with the summit. you were pretty unhappy. what does thatl tel you? >> we don't know what happened behind closed doors so i der't

know wheo be happy or not. my concern was about the public statements not being consistent anar with our policies. you know, frankly, again, our policies are a lot tougher than previously and probably not making the russians very happy. but loo i think it's fine if we have these conversations. i think talks are appropriate. you need to b prepared for them, so the president chose to postpone the potentialeeting here in the united states that he had talked about. that's -- you know, that's appropriate because i assume that we were not going to be prepared to have those so let's be prepared. look, i supported talking to north korea as long as we were prepared. of crse we should talk to them. we are two superpowers and have nuanear weapons need to talk. if you're going to ending up with a bter relationship, it's only going to happen about being consistent and clear and realistic about the issues between us. >> you asked secretary pompeo how come the sanctions don't seem to be working, it hasn'tch ged russia's behavior.

you want more sanctions. why do you think it hasn't worked, is it the president's rhetoric? >> well, it's a great question because we do have unprecedented levels o sanctions, certainly since the cold war, and we're talking about increasing those, which actually i support. but my question was very simple, which is they haven't backed off in terms of the illegal annexation of crimea. they havn't backed off terms of what they're doing on the eastern border of ukraine, which is a hot war, as you know. they haven't backed off in terms of supporting the murderous assad regime. so are the sanctions effective or not? now, some would say they have been effective toet the kremlin's attention but they obviously have not resulted in the kindan of actions reactions that we would expect. so my question is how can we mo effective and targeted in the sanctions. my sense is, chuck, that the better way to t approachs is to actually go after folks in russia who are influential, including some of the oligarchs support president putin and really to be more effective in targeting those sanctions. but i am interested ineang

back from the secretary for my question. >> i want to move to the supreme court and i know we'll begin -- start the confirmation process beginning. there's a bit of a fight over what papers in the archives ould be there. democrats believe republicans are asking for a limited amount, only looking at brett kavanaugh's time in the white house counsel's office. since ett kavanaugh himself has talked about his time as staff secretary in the white house, that that's important too. shouldn't the answer be release all the papers of his time in the bush administration? >> well, i've servedetwith in the bush administration. by the way, incredible guy, humble, a good listen, compassionate. i think he's going to do very well at the hearing. as you've probably seen in some of these poll numbers in some of ese states that are red states where you've got a democratic senator, he's very popuanr. peoplet to see him confirmed. so i think in the end he will do very well. in terms of the sue on document production, it ought to be documents that are relevant.o er words, when you're staff secretary, which was his

job, there are millions of documents literally that go through your office. you're the gate keeper, you're the traffic cop. it's not substantive so i think when he was associate unsel to the president ser certainly. his 200 opinions are important so those are the relevant documents. but to go on a fishing expedition into millions of documents that he had nothing substantive to say about i think would be a mistake. frankly, it's not in the democrats' interests to do that because it's going toostpone this even closer to the election, which i'm not sure that they want. >> rob portman, republican senator from ohio, i'm going to have to leave it there. thank you for coming on and sharing your views, much appreciate it. >> thanks, chuck. when we come back, the panel and what the breakwn with the trump/cohen relationship could mean for the russia investigation and the future of and it turns out another employee of president trump's may pose an even bigger threat ♪ i was able to turn the aircraft around, and the mission around, and was able to save two men's lives that night.

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eddie glaude jr., chair of thee ceor african-american studies at princeton university, peggy noonan, nbc news chief foreign afdeirs corresp, andrea mitchell, who is celebrating 40 years at nbc this week and matthew continetti, editor in chief of the free acon. let me put up president trump's tweetha about the m cohen situation. this is basically the only response he's given. i did not know of the meeting with my son don junior. sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam, taxicabs maybe e. n retained bill and crooked hillary's lawyer. gee, i wonder if they held him make the choice. cohen versus trump, peggy noonan, what do you make of this? it was very interesting when you said to sam nunberg, so, who's telling the truth here? i think h answer was more or less i think trump. do you know what i mean? could that be a fair

interpretation? >> it felt like he put a lot of caveats inthere. well, on this -- yeah. curiouof the things i'm about is where the heck does this go? you have a sense, asou watch the story, that more tapes will come, more testimony, more this, an e-mail, whatever, and we'll find out, yes, the president kind of knew about the trump tower meeting. someone wanted to shareag informationst hillary clinton. he said sure, let me know how it goes. if that isu where does that get you? what is our end point there? that doesn't prove incrity. it proves poor judgment. it prove ralack of sophistication within his campaign organization. normally these russians would come in off the street and meet with extremely low-level people, not top level -- oh,s my it's out of a daniel silva novel, it's so unsophisticated. >> that's high praise. >> which is what ieep -- yeah,

it is high phrase. but that's what i keep thinking of it as.t ill if the moment comes where we finding out trump knew about this meeting, what does that mean? >> you know, first of all, heard this kind of denial, right? so on air force one when he denied the payment to stormy daniels and then giuliani comes out and we realize he's lying. so he lies a d lot, dontrump. so to ask who's telling the truth between cohen and trump like asking who's the more trustworthy in the mob, right? sammy thull or this guy. that's not really the issue. the issue is he evidenc that's the question, the evidence. what is being put on the table here. an i think cohen's tape reveals intent. and the difficult part about the collusion claim is the intent claim. and if there's intent here, then e have a stronger cas around collusion. >> i talked to a few republicans this week who the combination of the disastrous helsinki summit

with this news,m thew, is starting to make capitol hill republicans very nervous. i'mso y, senator portman, he didn't like those michael cohen questions. he didn't want -- he didn't want to have anything to say. there are a lot of other threpublican senators, don't seem to be as ready to just take the president's side as they were even tw weeksago. >> they like the trump administration would rather robert mueller g away. and i think cohen's claim that the president knew about the trump tower meeting is basically a msage to robert mueller and saying that this claim, givenev the ence, if he has any, which he has not produced to date, would help yo robert mueller, in your construction of an obstruction of justice case against the president.'s thathere it seems to me the mueller investigation has been trending for some time. this would be another bullet point in that eventual report to congress where robert mller would say, yes, the president

interfered with this investigation. but from what we knowf robert mueller, he either has evidence already to corroborate this. he will not be relying on michael cohen as key witness. one has to think that a lot of peop, people includi in the trump orbit, say, look, this meeting took place one floor in trwer away from where the president was at that time, candidate trump was that day at that time. he then went to a fund-raising lunch th don junior. the possibility -- the probability that the son did not tell the father before or after this meeting or both is just so hard to believe, plus the two blocked phone calls, o, befo one after, that the republicans on the house intel committee would not let the democrats subpoena. so mueller either ha those phone records and a lot of other corroborating noformation or if this is going to go any place,t's not going to rely on michael cohen. >> just a small thought. in a funny way, i think the

cohen stuff and the meeting and the payoffs, check or cash for the playboy person, that has had a funny way of obscuring the really big story of the moment, which was helsinki, a two-hour meeting about which we know nothing. no american note takers. >> exactly. >> and then an obsequious and fawning for me as an american to watch embarrassing joint press conference with president pu that is huge historic and scandalous. >> what about the mike pompeo hearing after? i was surprised that senator portn thought tha secretary pompeo did so well. >> in fact for three hours almost unanimously the members, republican and mocratic and not just bob corker who's retiring, went after pompeo because not on a personal level, but because he was giving the party line pretty much and not explaining what happened in that twhour meeting. and their fear is that he does

not know, that mattis does not know, that no one knows what happened. and they are saying do not -- tandt's what the leaders said to the president when they went and got him to postpone the return visit right before the midterms they do notnt him going into another private meeting. first of all, no president, especially one as unschooled in foreign policy, the kremlin is putting out that he agreed to a referendum on ukraine, the kremlin is giving us the readouts. >> i thought susan glasser put it well. she said for hours pompeo insisted that trump's tweets and incendry comments were not t sum total of those policies, but it's a tough argument to make about a pricklyboss. the policy has not changed, pompeo insisted, but the real question remains what the policy is in the first place. >> n es. >> andis sense the michael cohen news came as a relief, i think, tt of republicans. it's the case that when the spotlight is on russia, when the spotlight is on michael avenatti

and stormy daniels, the president's base rallies to him. was struck by the week that donald trump was elected president, his personal favorability rating according to gallup was 36%. last mon gallup asked the same question. favorability rating was 36%. nothing changes. >> that's what always say about every week. everything happens and nothing changes. i'm going to pauco the ersation here. when we come back, the curious case of a woman named maria butina. was she a russian spy and could she be the key to a connection between the russians infiltrating the nra?

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learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. welcome back. it sounds like something ripped from a spy movie or a reboot of "the americans." a young russian woman accused of conspiring to influence american politics on behalf of russian intelligence of the 29-year-old maria butina was arreste last weekend in washington where she had recently graduate wed a master degree in international relations from american university. on paper she was a student and a gurights advocate known around campus for having pride in her g russian nd defend interests in class discussions. at the same time, investigators claim she was a covert agent

funded by alexander torshin, a russian oligarch, with close ties to the kremlin. at hises urging, igators say, she worked to gain access to american political operatives, ctiservative poans and political groups, including the trump campaign and more importantly in this story the nra.in g me now is someone who has done a lot of reporting on butina and russian intelligence efforts in this area, michael isikoff, co-author of "russian roulette." of course a former colleague here at nbc nes. welcome back to "meet the press." all right.ar yofacebook friends with maria butina. >> that's true. >> i know you did it for your reporting. >>dies. >> so ho you first discover her? >> i started hearing abouthe during the 2016 election as somebody who kept showing up at conservative political events, cpac onconferences, na prayer breakfasts, nra meetings, conventions. she met with nra leaders when they went to moscow and hosted

them. and it struck a lot of people as odd. what is this woman doing here? she was extremely flirtatious. n contact to maint with a lot of influential republican lobbyists, activists. she had this very close relationship with this guy paul erickson, conservativ activist in south dakota. but what really got my attenti was the alexander torshin connection. alexander torshin, who you mentioned, was a deputy governor of the russian central bank. putin. a close ally of most importantly, he was under investigation by the spanis national police for money laundering. in facte he had th ties to this organized crime money laundering gang in spain. the spanish national police had him on wiretaps -- >> he was goingo be arrested. >> they were going to arrest him. he was referred to by the

organized gang leader as el padrino, the godfather. they were all set to arrest him when he was going to fly in for a pirt day party. he got tipped off and didn't go. all this time he's flying in and out of the uniteds with butina meeting with nra leaders and republican >>activists. o in the criminal complaint against her when they decided ,ecause they thought she was going to fl i want to read this e-mail. it's a bit -- some rough english but it's in her words. it's an e-mail they put in there that essentially explains i guess what heran was. it says here that she has discovered the central place and influence, and they refer to in the political party one meaning the republicans, plays the gun rights organization here is nra. the nra is the largest sponsor of the elections in congress as well as sponsor ofhe cpac conference and other events. again, a little broken english from her but this was all part of this plan. it was an e-il she sent to paulerirksckson. this was an infiltration plan.

>> exactly. that was very savvyghin the way -- the goal here was to change the republican party's attude towards russia. traditionally hostile -- >> but it was sort of theca joh view of russia is what they assumed all republicans were. >> a the way to do was through the nra. who has more influence with republican members of congress especially thathe nra. they spend more money, they're the most powerfulspecial terest group. so the idea was tina sets up this russian gun rights o organizationorge this alliance with nra members as a way of fluencing the republican party. >> let's go back to paul erickson. >> yes. >> she's been now romantically linked with him. i guess they lived together in south dakota perhaps or some sort of -- >> right. apparently not totally willingly on her part but she felt this was part of her obligation and duty. >> she wrote this e-mail to him at the time to sort of like ask him am i wording thisrr tly?

it was sort of to get his -- is he witting or unwitting here? >> we don't know. there's good reason to beheeve under investigation himself by federal prosecutors, and i think one goalet is to her to flip on him about what he might know but i do think torshin is the key.in i he's the ultimate target here. he's been sanctioned by the u.s. one other thing we should mentiobu remember, na, for all the work she's doing, did one big service for the kremlin. july 2015 just a few weeks after trump nounces hiscandidacy, he goes to freedomfest, this libertarian event in las vegas, and takes a question from the floor from butina. what would be his position ons sanctiat are damaging both countries, and trump gives this full-fledged five-minute answer in which he say if i'm elected, you won't need sanctions. i know putin, can get along with putin. not a top issue in the

ebate at n political the time but very important for the kremlin. they had him on the record saying he would roll back sanctions. >> you've been doing nvestigations a long time, couple of decades now. let's raise up to 30,000 feet. we'll focus sometimes on the ru ia/trump angle or the nra. this larger investigation is going to be known as what? it looks to me like a russian infiltration campaign on allf levelse conservative movement on this country. is that what happened? >> thasxactly what seems to be happening. this was every much as part of the russian influence campaign as the cyber attacks, the facebook ads, the twitter bots, all of that. i've got to say just one thing -- i' i know you have a hobby horse. let you go. >> dereliction of duty on congress' part. why every major political scandal in the last half century, watergate, iranco ra, you name it. public hearings by the congress, key witnesses te under oath before the tv cameras. none of that has happened. he all behind closed doors,

including butina by the way. we should be seng these witnesses. they should be hauled up. grassley and feinstein could call micha cohen up omorrow, subpoena him, have him testify in public. >> don'tye let l spin. let's see it for ourselves. it's a good point to end on. michael isikoff, thanks for coming on. good work, sir. don't forget his book, "russian roulette." when we come back, the democrats big blue wall came democrats big blue wall came cras at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your retail business. so that if your customer needs shoes, & he's got wide feet. & with edge-to-edge intelligence you've got near real time inventory updates. & he'll find the same shoes in your store that he found online he'll be one happy, very forgetful wide footed customer. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &. & if your customer also forgets socks! & you could send him a coupon for that item.

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we are back, data download time. president trump loves to mock the big blue wall that pundits said he could not scale to reach 270 electoral votes in the 2016 election. as we all know, he did. he won in places like wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. president trump forged a newpa to the presidency for republicans in 2016, albeit a very narrow one, becaus he won michigan by the slimmest of margins, something a republican hadn done since 1988. he clinched wisconsin by less than a percentage point as well, a stateat hadn't gone red since 1984.

l minnesota he got well within striking distancing the state boy less than two points. no one had gotten that close since ronald reagan in 1984. trump's success in those midwestern states was fueled by his appeal with rural and working class. vote now new nbc news/marist pollsim show slipping in the midwest. president trump's approval rating in those thr states deep underwater. he did not break 40% in any of ose states and hisdisapproval is above 50% in all of them. this could be as much aboff ta by the way, as it is about his overall job performance. tariffs are hitting those three states particularly hard.ur of the president has two more years to make up for those numbers, but the midterecm on is just 100 days away. republicans are facing uphill ttles in elections for the house, senate and for governor. in fact in our poll voters in each of those state say they prefer democrats over republicans in this year's congressional races. and guess what, these states have a lot of big races to watch

this fall. they're home t nine republican held house seats currently listed as battlegrounds by our friends at the coo political report and there are four senate races all with democratic inc e incumben incumbents, one each in michigan and wisconsin and two in minnesota. plus each state has a governor's race. right now our polls show supporm forrats in those races as well. president trp has right field at that -- traveled to all of these states but the numbers suggest demrats may be rebuilding their big blue wall, at least for the midterms. when wee back, president trump says he plans to spend six or seven days a weekin campaigng he fall. why that could really help some republicans and really hurt others. >> announcer: coming up, end game and postgame, brought to you by boeing. continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. who would have thought, who would have guessed? an energy company helping cars emit less.

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i was able to turn the aircraft around and was able to save two men's lives that night. my first job helped me to grow up pretty quickly. that'll happen when you're asked to respond to a coup. in 2001, i signed up for the air force. two days later, 9/11 happened.

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what he says he's going to do in the last 60 days of this election year. >> i'll go six or seven days a week when we're 60 days out, and i will be campaigning for allf these great people that do have a difficult race. >> all rht,atthew continetti, all these great people that have the most difficult race, do you think they want donald trump campaigning for them? >> it depends on where they live. the closer they are to a city or a suburb, the less likely they are to want the president to come campaign for them. thpresident, of course, is not one to be cede the argument to his opponents or allow them to voice their criticism, so i think he plans to take a very active role in themidterms. make the argument as it already is of the midterms about him. the truth is that may actually lead to the republican advantage, because the big danger for the republicans s, one, those never hillary moderates vote democrat, b two, the trump base doesn't show up. his presence may actually

tespire them to v if he nationalizes the election. >> we have a bunch of polls the last tays we came out with, ndrea, and what's interesting it does seem to be this intensity on the left and right. the trump intensity is there too, but the gulf with the middle. now independents look like democrats. >> they do. i think the biggest issue ifuld be the t because you look at that so-called blue wall that dippear that collapsed for hillary clinton, those tariffs are really hurting farmers, soybeans prices down, wheat. ing to go to those grain elevators the end of september and beginning of october and they're going to sea those pric other industries around them, john deere and others, they're all going to be affected by this. i just was interviewi pat toomey from pennsylvania where the tariffs started just to win at special election, steel and aluminum, and he said we've got so many mor manufacturing jobs that rely on the price of steel and aluminum than the stee workers. he's against them, as are other republican senators. >> i just spoke to a government

official in south dakota who said we're worried about our farmers here. however,ne number we haven't said this morning, 4.1%. >> i said it at the beginning of the show. >> all right, at the beginning of the show, but in this conversation here. you know, i know it's only one r r. we had the last such quarter in 2014. but the white house made the most of it. when people hear 4.1% growth,we maybe on target for 3% this year. people have a little more money in their pockets, consumer confidence is up, taxes are down slightly. when you've g allthat, that's going to have an impact too. a general sense apart from tariffs that there's a certain amount of economic push-up that's going on. >> perhaps, wages are still flat line. what's interesting to me, gh thit's not so much the middle, it'se th new voters, those folks that you don't ordinarily count. so you have an excited democratbase, folks who are motivated because of trump. sd then you have folk that

usually don'tw up. usually don't show up to vote. ocasio-cortez is interesting beca te of who she got polls. we'll see the same thing in georgia with abrams and kemp. 40% of georgia, many of them don't vote. her job is to get them out. >> that's a big job,though, getting them out. >> matthew, i want you to comment on something else. the kh network had its -- has been having a meeting this wet end. wow, i w put up this quote from brian hooks, president of the charles koch foundation. the divisiveness of this white house is causim long-t damage. when in order to win on an issue someone else has to lose, it makes it very difficult to unite and solve the problems of this country. there was even some hints among some at the koch network meeting that, you know wht, maybe this partisan strategy isn't working. >> the kochs are greatly opposed to the tiffs as well as to some elements of more hawkish

foreign policy that dold trump embraces so it doesn't surprise me there would be a lot of criticism this eting. this argument about where libertarians fit in, where do social conservatives fit in, where doderate suburban republicans. the backbone of the george w. they oalition, right, are even still republicans? these are all questions that are going to be sorted out in the next two ,years. >> y and in the two years beyond tha this is all evolving. >> we'll see how it plays out, as if trump plays the culture war card. >> i don't know if the young people will come o, the new voters will come out and productivity is really flat. that 4.1 is areat number for now. we'll see how it plays out. >> it's the second quarter and those are always the best quarters. finally before we go we have a little anniversaryo celebrate. one of us at this table is celebrating 40 years at nbc news. i'm not goi to say who it is but she's appeared on "meet the press" 211 times, not including today. >> and joininge for our interviews, andrea mitchell, white house correspondent for c news.

andrea mitchell of nbc news. nbc news chieforeign counter mitchell. >> should clarence thomas be willing to take ?polygraph te >> you've said what you're against. what are you for. >> with all due respect, there a perception that people in power, particularly her in washington, are a closed >>club ake a look at the e-mail trail -- >> that is just factually not correct. >> andrea a mitchell. rea mitchell. >> if it's sunday, it's "meet the ess." >> andrea mitchell, fort years. >> started as a kid. possible? it >> a high school reporter. >> yeah, i was just going to say. how does it feel? >> it's been -- this sh above all shows, above all programs is the heart andul of nbc news. i have been proudest of hepearing here. my folks always wa it. i watched it as a kid through all of ouronderful moderators, and the legacy continues with you.

>> some of the best, most comfortable questions you have made male senators -- it's been very intw.esting you were asking some questions about the culture before anybody it.e was doing >> the culture has been so toxic lately, we forget thate've had previous difficult times here. the resilience of this country and of the news media is extraordinary and profoundly moving. but the factis, that we've got big problems still to solve in our hisociety. >> means you're not going anywhere. up got a lot more stories to report. >> thank you. >> and we've got cake too. that's all we have for today. we've got some work to do on this cake. thanks for watchin we'll be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." o> announcer: you can seed se,s by boeing, on the "meet the press" facebook page.